Manifold: Space (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Stephen Baxter (Author) "A passenger in the Hope-3 tug, Reid Malenfant descended toward the Moon..." (more)
Key Phrases: dodecahedral core, solar focus, hab module, Solar System, Saddle Point, Reid Malenfant (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stephen Baxter follows up his Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee Manifold: Time with the second book in the Manifold series, Manifold: Space. In this novel, former shuttle pilot and astronaut Reid Malenfant meets his destiny once again in a tale that stretches the bounds of both space and time.

The year is 2020 and the Japanese have colonized the moon. The 60-year-old Malenfant is called there by a young scientist named Nemoto who has discovered something in the asteroid belt that can only mean humans are not alone in the universe. The aliens seem robotic in nature and appear to be building something in Earth's backyard. The Gaijin, as they are called by humans, don't respond to communication efforts so an unmanned ship is launched to investigate. In the meantime, Malenfant decides answers are only possible by mounting an expedition to Alpha Centauri, which may be where the Gaijin come from.

Baxter, who won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships, orchestrates a stunning array of scientific possibilities in Manifold: Space. Each chapter adds a new piece to his mosaic of humanity's future. The novel is admirable in its enormous scope, but it's hard to invest much emotion in the characters. Although they are well drawn, they vanish for long periods of time as Baxter leapfrogs through time and space. Manifold: Space, by its nature, lacks passion but excels in grand ideas. --Kathie Huddleston --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Former NASA astronaut Reid Malenfant returns to lead the vanguard for humanity's future in space in this deeply thought-provoking sequel to Manifold: Time. In the year 2020, America's space program has disintegrated, and the Japanese have colonized the moon. A young Japanese lunar scientist invites Malenfant to the moon for a consultation over mysterious sources of infrared she's discovered in the asteroid belt. A couple of enterprising engineers send the first probe to the asteroids to find out just what's there, only to have their probe swallowed up by a huge, artificial ship. Years later Malenfant mounts his own expedition to the solar focus of Alpha Centauri, where he finds a teleport gateway leading to a race of self-duplicating robots that humans eventually call the Gaijin. Centuries pass before Malenfant begins to understand the realities that underlie the existence of all life in the universe. Philip K. Dick Award-winner Baxter packs his gigantic odyssey with innovative hypotheses, fascinating explanations of complex scientific phenomena and gorgeous descriptions of spaceships. That the novel covers far more territory, both in time and distance, than any one person could ever absorb is both a strength and a weakness; suspense is difficult to maintain over the course of centuries. While a large cast of characters helps generate this unwieldy scenario, only their scientific motivations are explored. Science itself is very clearly the star player on this stage. Nonetheless, this focus allows for an exceptionally intricate and original view of the future that both scientists and lay enthusiasts will enjoy. (Jan.)Forecast: Manifold: Time was nominated for the 2000 Arthur C. Clarke Award. This one could garner its own nominations--with a consequent boost in sales for both titles.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; First Thus edition (January 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345430786
• ISBN-13: 978-0345430786
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,293 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 2 in The Manifold Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Baxters' best to date., January 30, 2001

By	Jason N. Gultjaeff "jayg99" (Corpus Christi, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Manifold: Space (Hardcover)

Absolutley loved this novel. The shear depth of Baxters' ideas and his firm grasp of the latest cutting edge physics, is a joy to read. I loved Mainifold: Time, but this one I couldn't put down. What I love most about this novel is that you realise your learning something while enjoying every page. Personally, I have no problems with Baxters' characterizations and writing style, I think he's one of the best in hard SF ( generally better than Egan or Bear, in my opinion). To summarize what this novel is about, while not giving too much away- imagine a thought experiment concerning the Fermi Paradox, e.g if aliens exist, why aren't they here? This paradox could have lots of solutions, e.g life is very,very rare, or perhaps life is common but it gets wiped out or wipes itself out in a relatively short time scale... This novel seems to take the latter angle, space is brimming with life, yet none of it every really gets the chance to advance beyond a certain point. What's behind all this is the crux of the story. Loved the ending as well.

Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting- but not satisfying, February 12, 2001

By	John C. Chowning "triedstone" (Linden, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manifold: Space (Hardcover)

This book is worth reading for the interesting discussions concerning sublight space travel and even gives a scientific explanation for teleportation. However, the author fails to give satisfying motivations for the political institutions and characters. ETS are discovered in the asteriod belt, but no government sends a probe or a manned visit. Aliens threathen to invade the solar system, but no human or government is willing to put up a defense. Instead, humans relie on a group of ETS to defend the home system for 500 years; the same group of ETS that had to buy an x-ray weapon from the humans earlier in the novel. Other parts of the novel seemed to defy logic- The teleportation gates are not affected by an event that erases all other biological and constructed material from the galaxy; an old woman mounts a better defense of our solar system than a fleet of ETS. Readers who love "hard" SF will like this novel. People who like more character development or military SF will not be as pleased.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manifold arghhhhhh!, October 9, 2005

By	Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I think I would really enjoy a physics class taught by Mr Baxter, since the man clearly knows his science, knows which sources to go to and is able to synthesize them in ways that he can explain them without your head exploding. Also, he's able to extrapolate those ideas into some interesting scenarios that suggest some fun possibilities and open the mind up for more speculation. Alas, he's not able to translate that yet into novels with real emotional heft and the bigger his ideas get, the more the story tends to leave you behind. This book is the follow-up to Manifold: Time and as the title implies, while this book still requires great leaps in time, this time out we're more about moving outward than jumping forward. Jumping off the conclusions set by the last novel, Baxter essentially hits the reboot button and drops us in a totally different universe, although some of the characters are still the same. The most notable is our hero Reid Malenfant, who is older than the first book but just as obsessed with mankind securing their destiny beyond the stars. Instead of wondering how we're going to survive, however, he's more interested in why they aren't any other intelligent races in the galaxy, or at least why it seems that way. Meanwhile, an intelligent race does apparently decide to move into the solar system from far away and that's where the fun starts. Always willing to boldly go (split infinitive and everything), Reid disappears into a portal that was left by some prior alien race and the voyage of discovery begins. As I mentioned before, Baxter is fiend when it comes to idea and everything is well thought out. From the weird robot-like Gajin that show up, to all the other aliens that pop in every so often, to the effects of time and history when extrapolated thousands upon thousands of years into the future, it's like he's taking you through an exhibit hall in his mind, showcasing all the fun science-based ideas he has and dressing them up as science-fiction. However, it doesn't take long before the reader quickly starts to lose the plot and everything begins to drown in a sea of glorious information. There are gates that allow people to travel but since it's lights-speed, time dilation still applies and when they come back to Earth, it's hundreds of years in the future each time, leading to effects that aren't much different from what the soldier suffered in Joe Haldemann's famous The Forever War, namely culture shock and the sense of dissociation and alienation. Things progress and Baxter shows us people on the moon, people on different planets, different aliens in other star systems, the galaxy, the picture keeps blowing up bigger and bigger until you almost can't contain it. But we don't really ever find out what it all means. The cover copy on the back of the book suggests that the main thrust of the plot has something to do with the reasons why intelligent life flares up and then dies out, leaving artifacts scattered all around the galaxy that other races pick up on, and Baxter sprinkles plenty of hints that the solar system was previously used by other races for various purposes, but it's buried under such a sea of static that it's hard to sort through it all. Especially since Baxter seems to be acting like an excited child, throwing each new idea in our face almost as he comes up with it, "You like this? Well how about this? Or this? Or even this?" until you're almost numb from it. By the time he gets around to answering the central question, almost five hundred pages later, you're been dazzled by as many marvels as science can handle but feeling strangely empty at the same time. It almost feels like "Who cares?" and regardless of anything else, I doubt that's the reaction he intended. Still, he gets an A for effort and the individual moments are extraordinary, showing that he's a mind possessed of a far vision and the fact that he's able to take all this knowledge and assemble it into something resembling a story is amazing in itself. But when you add it all up, it's not quite everything it's supposed to be. Hard science junkies will probably eat it up like the candy it is, everyone else looking for slightly more emotional content may find it rough going at times but for anyone who wants to see if all those complicated ideas that involve words with too many letters actually might mean something, well this is as good a place to start as any.